Monday morning, after a very stormy weekend, dawned bright and beautiful. I got to the The Crafthouse on time at 9am to find Erica and Tatiana already there. I must mention that the sea was still quite rough and the strong breeze and sea-scent was quite invigoration. We didn't have to wait long before we were joined by Tequila and Delvin(not sure if I have all the names right yet but I am trying...I am remembering Kelvina's name now )... Others trooped in little by little! All except the three fashion-sistas (Crystal and the two sisters) from Shadwell were present by 10.30am. We were also joined by Ms. Street, an art teacher at Immaculate Conception Catholic School.
We started the day by working on the pieces that had made last Friday. I showed them techniques for using a variety of clean-up tools. Some tools are more comfortable to use than others, so they needed to find which worked best in their hands.
After that exercise, I invited them to grab their sketch pads, pencils, and chairs and head outside. I had decided to show the, how to draw a face using construction lines to create the a map so as to guide them to where every facial feature could be placed in correct proportion to each other! The usual barrier to drawing again appeared..."I can't do that".... but for those who paid attention and followed the instructions, I had very little changes to make to the drawings. The exercise again proved very valuable and they all had an interesting face to show for their hard work....this was a great entry for the piece they would create later.
After a quick mid-morning break we went back inside the studio and I showed them how they could use the same technique to create a face in clay. I did a piece, going through it step by step....I had given each participant a good sized piece of clay and at times let them work along with me....So first the wedging of the clay....then it had to be 'slammed gently' on the table, over and over to create a large slab. A face shape was then drawn very lightly on the clay, then all construction lines for the parts of the face were put in....balls and coils of clay was then added....then came the attaching and sculpting of the faces. The participants ended up produced some beautiful and creative pieces.
At the end of the day, they were encouraged to tidy up the space before leaving and secure the scraps of clay for recycling.
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